Page 3 - News On 7 October 2021

THIRD GENERATION TRACTOR RECEIVES A FACELIFT “9N FORD”
Written by: Gerald Pack
I am going to try and give you the history of this tractor by relating to where it all took place and by some of the people involved over the
years! This started for me in the year of 1962 when I purchased a house and lot in Marmora Township, north of a little place called Malone.
The house needed a great deal of upgrading which meant a lot of building materials.
I decided to buy our supplies from Embury’s building supplies in Madoc which was a family owned business mainly by Elmer and his sister
Vera. The Embury family owned this farm property mainly in the village and one day while getting some supplies, Elmer said, we will have
to go out to the barn where it was stored.Elmer and I drove to the barn just south of the Dales Mansion, a benchmark in the Village of
Madoc. It had belong to the Dale family who owned the bank in Madoc and went bankrupt in 1903, causing a great deal of grief for the
community.
Elmer and I opened the barn door to get our supplies and there was a 9N Ford tractor in the barn.I said to Elmer,
who does that belong to, as I had been looking for something like that. He said we don’t use it much anymore as
we are too busy with the building materials.
Elmer and I discussed where he had bought the tractor, here are some details involving the tractor.The tractor
was purchased from Walter Brett, the local dealer in Madoc who sold literally hundred’s of these tractors in the
area. Bretts garage was located on Main St. in Madoc, where the market is presently situated and the garage
behind it on the banks of the Deer Creek.
The business was owned by Walter Brett and sons, Grand and Harold. Mechanics who worked for the Brett
family, Lindsay Empey, Morley Milton, Milton Robinson, Jack Scrutton, Bill Baker, and I am sure there are more I
didn’t know as they where a prominent dealership for many years.
Salespeople that I knew and again I am sure there were many, so pardon me if I leave some out by accident. The whole staff had a hand in
sales but two salespeople I knew were, Ed Baterson a people person old time salesman and one of his favorite quote was “If I can get my
feet under the kitchen table I had a sale.”
Bill Bateman anther salesman of note would sell the customer a new tractor and take their team of
horses on trade a part payment and usually had a perspective buyer for the horses! Ed Batman had
another selling line when he say “these tractors don’t eat any hay when their not working!”
Elmer and I discussed the price for his tractor, and he said he would like $600.00 for it, I said that
would be fine, except I didn’t have the money right now, but could we leave the tractor there and I
would make payments to him until it was paid. Elmer said that would be acceptable to him.
I was working at General Motors in Oshawa at that time and after I had made a couple of
payments, Elmer said “if you can use the tractor, take it home with you and by the way, there is a 3
point hitch and cultivator that goes with it.”
So, the story starts as I took it home June 1967 and this was my 1st Centennial project. The 2nd was
the purchase of a School Bus and route from Fred Moorcroft which I kept from Dec 2, 1967 until I
sold it to Foley Bus Lines in June 2010.
The Pack homestead farmed at RR#1 Eldorado became available in 1972 as father and mother
wanted to retire due to health reasons but wanted to stay in original home. This resulted in
building a new home for our family on the property and we moved there in June 1973.
This move resulted in plenty of work for the 9N Ford tractor on a 100 acre farm. I also rented an
adjacent farm, this required a great deal of extra work as reseeding was necessary which made a bit
of extra work for the little tractor.
In 1980, a neighboring farmer contacted me about an adjacent farm of his for sale and as a result of
buying this property, we had to get bigger equipment which resulted in the 9N being used for
garden and driveway work until my retirement in 2018 when we moved to Madoc.

Having time to do things now I decided to pay my dues to my Centennial tractor and call Keith
Johnston about doing this for me. Keith suggested I should contact Dwayne Adams to do this for me
and he completely over hauled this tractor, took it all apart, replaced just about everything,
reassembled and painted it to a better than new tractor.
Here are some of the parts we replaced during the restoration: new 12 volt system, new wiring, new
carburetor, new 12 volt lamps, new water pump and hoses, new clutch assembly and completely
painted.
I am sure I missed some things but Dwayne did a terrific job and it gives my legacy for my family and
makes my “Field of Dreams” come true. Many thanks to Dwayne, a job well done.